With a few ISO files given by Shyam, I am starting a collection of various Linux Distros. I hope that a good collection of older and latest distros will be helpful for those who want to try and settle on Linux. The CD’s and DVD’s will be distributed to all those who want it, with just the cost of the CD/DVD and cover. My contact details can be seen here [this is a link]. Following CD’s and DVD’s are now available with me.

Debian

• Debian Lenny Testing Official snapshot i386 – 1 DVD

• Debian Lenny Testing Official snapshot i386 – 1 CD

• Debian etch 4.0 r3 i386 – 1 CD

• Debian etch 4.0 r0 i386 – 3 DVD’s

• Debian etch 4.0 r0 i386 Live GNOME – 1 CD

• Debian etch 4.0 r0 with SMC Softwares – 1 CD

Ubuntu

• Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition – 1 DVD

• Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 7.10 for PC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 7.10 for 64-bit PC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 7.04 for PC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 7.04 for 64-bit PC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 6.06 LTS for PC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 6.06 LTS for 64-bit PC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 6.06 LTS for MAC – 1 CD

• Ubuntu 5.10 for PC – 2 CD’s (Live and Install)

• Ubuntu 5.10 for 64-bit PC – 2 CD’s (Live and Install)

• Ubuntu 5.10 for MAC – 2 CD’s (Live and Install)

• Ubuntu 5.04 for PC – 2 CD’s (Live and Install)

• Ubuntu 5.04 for 64-bit PC – 2 CD’s (Live and Install)

Kubuntu

• Kubuntu 7.10 for PC – 1 CD

• Kubuntu 7.10 for 64-bit PC – 1 CD

• Kubuntu 6.06 LTS for PC – 1 CD

• Kubuntu 6.06 LTS for 64-bit PC – 1 CD

Edubuntu

• Edubuntu 7.10 for PC and Server – 1 CD

• Edubuntu 6.06 LTS – 1 CD

IT @ School GNU/Linux

• IT @ School GNU/Linux 3.01 – 2 CD’s

• School GNU/Linux by KSTA – 1 CD

Fedora

• Fedora 8 Live i686 – 1 CD

• Fedora Core 6 – 5 CD’s

• Fedora Core 3 – 4 CD’s

RedHat

• RedHat Enterprise Linux ES 4 (i386) – 4 CD’s

• RedHat Linux 9 (i386) – 3 CD’s

• RedHat Linux 7 (i386) – 2 CD’s

Mandrake

• Mandrake Linux 10.1 – 4 CD’s (3 installation and 1 support)

MEPIS

• SimplyMEPIS 6.5.02 32Bit – 1 CD

gNewSense

• gNewSense Live Deltah 2.0 – 1 CD

Gentoo

• Gentoo Linux 2007.0 x86 – 1 CD

Knoppix

• Games Knoppix 3.7.0.2 – 1 CD

I’ll be updating the details of the collection in my site; http://www.tvmanukrishnan.uni.cc/ and also at the MESCE GNU Lab wiki.

I also started installing one among the 20 systems and is almost finished. What left is few softwares like SQL server. Installing other systems will be much easier after completing one as all the systems are alike and hence backup softwares like Ghost can be used to make copies of the entire hard disk. Haven’t tried it yet with SATA drives; hope it works.

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After a long time, the latest version of Debian detected the USB modem in my LG G1600 phone. Querying is success, but I haven’t yet tried connecting net. I am always misfortunate, because by the time my system recognized the USB modem, Airtel, the service provider which I use for the GPRS connection has reduced the validity of RS 274 GPRS recharge from 30 days to 15. Now, I should try with Idea, which provide GPRS at the rate of RS 9 per day.

I was also successful in configuring the permissions of the fat32 file systems accessible through Linux. Now, I could give write permissions to individual users by editing the “etc/fstab” file. This is much needed for me as by brothers are also using my computer and I don’t want them to accidently delete any files in the fat32 partitions.

The exams till now, was somewhat easier compared to the first exam, M1. Four exams are over by now and there are five more left.

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As decided yesterday, I reinstalled Lenny as a fresh installation. It was really time consuming as the DVD drive is not in good working condition, showing read errors. Not only the drive, each and every part of the system is facing problems. I hope I could carry on with it for two more years. When calculating, the system is 3 year, 1 month and 10 days old and only the hard disk has the warranty left.

Taking the case of Lenny, it has changed much from etch. Its visual effects has improved, file permission settings are working better, renders Malayalam better and has GNOME with 80% interface localized to Malayalam. My next step is to try a distro with KDE. I have left out a 7GB for trying out new distros.

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Yesterday, I installed Anjuta IDE in Debian. But, I couldn’t compile the programs properly. I was getting an error that header file is missing. Same was the case with GCC too. So, I asked my sirs about it. They too don’t have any idea about that. Today, after spending more than an hour with it, I found out the error. The libraries which contain the header files needed for compiling programs were not installed properly and only the header files needed for the working of OS were present. After installing it from the Debian DVD, everything was ok.

Also, today we were taken to the computer lab in the college for the first time. The lab had all the systems installed with RedHat enterprise edition. But, the feedback I got from my classmates about the Linux was not impressive. They were asking that all these can be done with Windows too, then why Linux? Hope, we could change this way of thinking through our workshop.

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I heard a lot about Compiz from Shyam, Priyan and others, but couldn’t install it properly. Today, as Aadithyan said, I installed 3ddesktop from the Debian DVD. It worked, but was not much impressive. When I called Shyam, he said that 3ddesktop was a development stage of Compiz and Compiz is really great. So, I decided to give it a try once more. After installing Compiz and editing the xorg.conf file, I restarted the system and came across the error with loading GDM. But this time, I was able figure out the problem, which was with xorg.conf and corrected it.

When I ran Compiz, it was really amazing. with the Ctrl + Alt + combinations, I could get a 3D view of the workspaces, when I drag a window to the edge of the screen, it will come to the next workspace, Alt + Tab combination giving real time screen shots of programs and much more. It also provides effects while dragging or moving windows. I wonder how the creators managed to have this sophisticated thing in size even less than 500KB!

Though its cool, I encountered a few bugs. I think its because of the low memory(256MB) I have. I couldn’t watch videos while Compiz is running. The video screen goes black and only the sound will be there. Also, sometimes, the title bar disappears and the workspace switcher malfunctions. I have a little old version with me. So, these must have been corrected by now. Waiting for the permission of parents to activate GPRS so that I could download the newer version.

Anyway, Compiz is really GREAT!!!

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